


The Gift of the Dumbass

by Traffy (Traffy_desu)



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:13:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22166188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traffy_desu/pseuds/Traffy
Summary: Seto Kaiba is not one to show his emotions, or seemingly even have a lot of them, but after receiving a present from a long lost nobody he's unsure of how to react.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Comments: 6
Kudos: 72





	1. The Gift

**Author's Note:**

> I have not written a fanfiction in a long, long time, so I hope I'm still okay at it.  
> That's it I don't have any other notes

Seto Kaiba wasn’t one to celebrate his birthday. It wasn’t as if he hated the idea of aging, or even celebrations in themselves, he was just far too busy to really do anything about it. If it weren’t for the fact that every single person he passed by wished him a happy birthday, he would have forgotten it completely. That, of course, and the flowers and presents that seemed to pile up into a mountain throughout the day.

A small sneer twitched across his face as he walked into his office, the twenty thousandth ‘Happy birthday, sir!’ ringing from another faceless employee behind him as the large doors clicked closed behind him. It was all empty gestures, of course, and seeing the bouquet of light blue roses on his desk before he had even started his day solidified that. If they had even bothered to ask him, to know who he actually was, they would at least get the flowers right. All the gifts he was given were simple bribery, meaningless trinkets, cologne, chocolates… None of them were meant for him as a person, just him as a powerful, terrifying CEO. It was almost demeaning, in a way.

Not that he actually cared about getting presents, anyway. He always gave everything to his brother, charity, or even just a nearby, overly eager employee. If there was something he wanted, he could get it himself, and there wasn’t much more in the world he wanted. Not anything he could buy with money, anyway.

The day seemed to go by much faster than Kaiba had realized. It was almost like he blacked out, staring at the screen and blocking out the incredibly frequent occurrence of receptionists bringing in boxes and bouquets. Before he realized it, the sky had turned black and the light on his desk was obscured by the small pile there. Did he remember to eat lunch? Or dinner?  
He buried his face in his hands, rubbing at his sore eyes and let out a soft groan. Maybe one of these boxes had some aspirin in it, or at least actual food that wasn’t just a box of chocolates. Doubtful, but it wouldn’t be the weirdest present he had gotten.

As he sat back in his chair, he let out a slow breath, his mostly finished work flickering on the computer as he closed his eyes. Maybe just resting his eyes for a bit would be enough.

The CEO was suddenly blinded by the buzzing lights overhead flicking on, and he let out a soft yell of protest, both hands covering his eyes. He quickly stood from the desk, fury blinding him further - but only for a moment. His shoulders relaxed as his brother came into vision, the blurry outlines of exhaustion melding away.

“Mokuba…” Seto sat back down in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest and rolling his shoulders back.

“Sorry, Seto!” Mokuba didn’t really seem very sorry. He was holding a small cake, decorated like it was done by a very shaky child. He placed it down on Seto’s desk between the meaningless presents, before walking around and plopping himself directly onto his brother’s lap. The brunette twitched, pulling his hands to his shoulders as he glared a bit at his younger brother’s form.  
Mokuba was officially an adult now - or, at least, _technically_ an adult - and had grown quite a bit along with his age. He wasn’t as big as the CEO, of course, but he definitely had a bit more weight than an eleven year old. His hair was shorter now, too, and he was actually starting to… look like an adult. Seto was certain this is what if felt like to watch one’s own child growing up too fast. He touched the corner of his eye, frowning a bit. Was he getting wrinkles? No, he couldn’t be. He wasn’t even thirty yet, there was no way he already had worry lines or crow’s feet.

He was snapped out of his train of thought as Mokuba grinned up at him. Did he say something? It took Seto a moment to process what his brother had already said. Gods, he hated when that happened.  
“Let’s open your presents!”  
Right. They did this every year, didn’t they? Rifle through these stupid wrapped reminders of another year passed, and laugh at how no one seemed to know him very well. Well, Mokuba would laugh, Seto would just scoff and throw it off to the side.

Seto rubbed at his eyes as his brother took it upon himself to rip into a small, rectangular box closest to his computer. He assumed it was some sort of cologne, or a watch that cost about five times more than it should. As he dropped his hands, however, Mokuba placed something directly on his face. He scrunched his eyes closed, shoulders tensing up.

He blinked his eyes open a few times, dropping his shoulders as he lifted a hand to touch the thing that was placed on his face.

“Glasses?”

Mokuba grinned, leaning back against the elder Kaiba as if he were a lounge chair. Seto twitched, but didn’t outwardly complain.

“It says they’re blue light blocking glasses. They’re supposed to make your eyes less tired when you stare at the screen for ten hours straight!”  
Seto frowned a bit, but leaned back - keeping the glasses on. Alright, one present was useful at least. He severely doubted he’d get anything else he would actually keep.

Mokuba did most of the work for him, eagerly and not at all carefully tearing into boxes, and much more excited for essentially the same shit he got last year, and the year before that. A slew of ties that weren’t his style and watches that he absolutely didn’t need, a cologne or two that sent them both into coughing fits. [ _“Why does is smell like a shoe!?” “It says ‘hints of leather’” “Shoe leather!?”_ ]

As they got down to the gift baskets and chocolate that didn’t really leave much mystery, Mokuba lifted the cake and set it away from the discarded wrappings and boxes. He made a small noise, as if confused by something. A small brown box wrapped with an icy blue bow, and no tag had hidden itself behind the cake. He lifted and turned it around, frowning a bit before lifting it above his head to pass it back to his brother.

“It doesn’t say what company this one is from! It might be a bomb!”  
“If someone was trying to kill me they wouldn’t do it with a bomb.” Seto raised both eyebrows, taking the box and turning it over as well. It definitely wasn’t as fancy or elaborate as any of the other boxes. The bow certainly seemed to be done by hand, uneven as hell despite the fact that one could tell there was a lot of care put into it. It was… cute? The CEO shook his head a bit. That word should not unironically cross his mind.

He carefully pulled the ribbons off, discard it on top of Mokuba’s head much to his instant and mostly faked rage. He pulled the top off, placing it on the desk. Inside was a folded piece of paper - not anything fancy or handwritten, just a sheet of paper with a default font on it. Underneath it, however, placed carefully against polyfill was a pair of cuff links. They shined against the artificial light and Seto had to turn the box to fully see what they were.

His eyes went wide, if only for a moment. They were immaculately crafted, in the shape of the head of the Blue Eyes White Dragon. They weren’t cartoonish, or skipped on the details like he would expect. Set in what he assumed was white gold, with two very small blue diamonds for the eyes. They faced each other, as if ready to destroy themselves at any moment.

It felt like blood was rushing past his ears, the new glasses slipping down his nose part way as he clutched the box tightly in his hand. Without knowing how incredibly conflicted, and possibly confused, his brother felt, Mokuba took the printed out note and unfolded it - reading it out loud.

_Kaiba,_

_I know you probably still hate me, or at least haven’t actually thought about me in the past… 7 years? Is that how long it’s been? Who really knows. But! I figured out when your birthday is, and I got these made for you, because I had some money saved up and what I was trying to save for kind of fell through. I also figured, since no one else has tried to talk to me, maybe you might want to? I don’t know. I’m just kind of rambling on paper right now. You don’t have to keep them if you don’t want, I’m sure you’ll probably just throw them out with the rest of the garbage you got from your adoring fans, yeah? Not that I am one of those, but… yeah. Happy Birthday!_

_Joey “Third Rate Duelist” Wheeler_

Mokuba let out a small laugh as he finished the note, folding it back up and setting it back in the box. Seto had taken out the cufflinks as he read, and was very quietly replacing the plain ones he had been wearing already.

“How many times do you think he re-wrote that?” Mokuba snorted in amusement. “It sounds like he has a crush on you or something! Right?” He looked up at the older Kaiba, and jumped a bit.

“Seto, you’re crying!”

“...am I?”


	2. The Tournament

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joey has a small crisis, and Kaiba gets scared

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long!! I have a habit of never updating a fanfiction past the first chapter, but since this is my first one in a long time I'm pushing myself to finish it.
> 
> I don't know if this one is as good as the first chapter, but here it hecking is

Joey had technically kept his word, participating in tournaments and regularly at least making it to the finals. All of this was quickly becoming stale, however. Without his friends in the crowd cheering him on, the motivation to continue winning was quickly going down the drain. He had acquired a small fan base, at least, but that certainly wasn’t the same. Everyone was busy with their own lives, furthering their education, creating games that will most likely change the world, things much more important than playing card games, for sure. It wasn’t their fault, of course, Joey would never blame his friends for doing anything clearly more important than cheering him on, but… it was certainly much more lonely.  
So he was here at another tournament, in the waiting room he was assigned, sitting on the floor and against the wall instead of the chair at the table a few feet away. The TV in the far corner showed the current duel, which would have been quite interesting and exciting if it didn’t feel like a brick wall was pushing down on his shoulders.  
He ran his hands through his fluffy blond hair, sticking his tongue out as he stared blankly at the TV. He probably should have been paying attention instead of just dissociating, seeing as he was likely going to have to duel one of them, but he felt just a bit too exhausted. Having to keep up with his own manic personality was tiring, he should be able to take a break from himself every now and then.

When the duel was finally over - which could have taken a few more minutes or hours on end, Joey couldn’t really tell - something about the tournament host congratulating the finalists was said. The blond sat up a bit at that, pulling his knees up and resting his arms atop them. Who was the host again…? These duels and tournaments seemed to have blended together, he was having a rather difficult time actually remembering the details of this one in particular.  
A tall brunette had walked on stage. An incredibly familiar brunette, in fact.

Joey sat up a bit more, tilting forward to try and get a better look. Kaiba was in a pale blue suit, of course, but that wasn’t the detail he was concerned about.  
The blond stood up rather suddenly, rushing towards the table and knocking over a chair in the process. He placed his hands on the table, leaning forward with eyes wide. There was a little flash of something on the CEO’s cuffs, something small and shiny. Joey leaned in a bit more, squinting until he could finally make out what that little flash was.  
“He’s… wearing the cufflinks…” He slumped against the table, staring in silence. What exactly was he supposed to be feeling? Happy? Confused? A strange sense of pride? He was wearing them. They were actually on his cuffs, and he was in public. On TV, even. Probably national TV, though gods know Joey didn’t pay attention enough to know. Why was he wearing them, though? Did Kaiba know Joey was in this tournament? Maybe this was some strange form of torture. It wouldn’t be against Kaiba’s character to do some weird shit like that. Joey could feel his heartbeat in his throat, just staring at the TV as Kaiba went through his speech.  
The door clicked.

There must have been some rather extreme delay on the TV, or otherwise, Joey was seeing double. Kaiba stood in front of the double doors, the one he had opened slowly closing behind him. It almost felt like Joey wasn’t actually experiencing the moment, but watching it on replay somewhere completely out of his body.  
The blond pushed himself off the table, brushing himself off with a rather awkward grin on his face. What exactly was he supposed to say? “Uh, hey.” Maybe not that.  
It was only then that he actually saw the expression on Kaiba’s face, his even tenser than usual body language. He looked… terrified. Even more than Joey could imagine him being, which honestly wasn't much. It was like someone had drained all the color from his face and threw him into a freezer.

“Whoa. Hey, uh.” Joey stepped around the table, and closer to the brunette. Before he could get out whatever awkward speech he was going to give, Kaiba nearly ran backward against the door. A loud _Bang!_ rang out through the lobby, the CEO apparently forgetting the door had closed behind him and slamming his head against the heavy metal surface.  
“Fuck!” Not the first word he expected to hear out of Kaiba. The blond watched him fall to the ground, grabbing the back of his head and groaning in pain. Not exactly the kind of vulnerability he expected, either. Joey was on the floor just as quickly, in a mild panic as to what to do.  


Joey held his hands out towards Kaiba, pausing before pulling them back. “Are you alright?” Probably not. He didn’t get an answer, just another pained groan as Kaiba stayed slumped over on the floor. He wasn’t dead, at least. Kaiba’s hands slipped from his head, and Joey took the opportunity to replace them with his own. He very carefully ran his fingers along the back of the dark-haired head, making sure there was no blood - or at least none he could feel.  
He let out a soft sigh of relief, taking his hand away just as delicately. Before he could speak again, Kaiba finally spoke up.

“Why are you being nice to me?” There was a hiss of malice in his voice, but Joey was fairly sure that was just what he sounded like. The blond let out a small laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean you might have seriously hurt yourself, I don’t--”  
“Not that, moron.” Kaiba lifted his head, a hand carding through his hair as he snarled at the shorter man. There was still that… strange terror in his eyes. The anger, the mean spirit, that was always there. It was the fear that caused Joey to pause.  
“I…” Joey sat back, a small frown on his face. That was a good question, now that he thought about it. Kaiba was nothing but mean to him, the only conversations they had were insults hurled back and forth. So why did Joey want to be anything but angry towards him? It made no sense.  
“I don’t know.” Joey offered a small, sideways smile, glancing down to those immaculately crafted cufflinks. He pointed towards them, looking up into Kaiba’s eyes. “Why are you wearing those?”  
Kaiba went quiet for a moment, clicking his tongue against his teeth. “...I don’t know.” Was he being genuine, or just mocking the blond? It was hard to tell.

The door clicked open again, a concerned staff member quick to help Kaiba to his feet and insisting they call an EMT. He begrudgingly agreed as Joey brought himself to his feet. Was he supposed to follow? He glanced back at the TV, chewing on his lip.  
Kaiba cleared his throat to get Joey’s attention, who jumped a bit at the noise. Was he about to get yelled at or something? He turned his attention back to the brunette, only to be handed a silver gilded envelope.  
Joey blinked in surprise, taking the rather fancy… letter? Invitation? He wasn’t sure. Before he could ask, the CEO was gone, and Joey was left with his heart pounding in his chest.

He moved back into the room, letting the door close by itself as he stared down at the envelope. He shook his head a bit, eyes closing.  
“I guess that didn’t go as terrible as it could have.”


	3. The Invitation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It seems Joey is having yet another crisis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3 months between chapters and then like two days?  
> Yeah, that's just the kind of hard-hitting journalism you can expect from me.
> 
> Honestly, this was going to be the beginning of what the next chapter will be but it started getting too long so... just take it  
> Didn't even let anyone else proofread just checked for errors and hit submit  
> It's 3:00 AM and I am full of chaos

Joey wasn’t entirely sure what brought on Kaiba handing him such an elaborate invitation. It didn’t have his name on it, so it wasn’t specifically made for him. A black-tie event, definitely something he would be incredibly out of place in. He did own a suit, thankfully, but it was probably cheap and tacky in comparison to everyone else that would be there. Still… free food. Probably free booze, too, even though it was likely just wine and champagne.  
The blond sat up on his couch, one leg pulled up to his chest and the other bouncing nervously on the floor. A long-haired orange cat laid next to him, completely unbothered by her owner’s nerves. He stared at the open invitation on the coffee table in front of him - gilded with silver like the envelope, the letters raised, and the paper thick and textured like a fancy pack of cards. It even had Kaiba’s own signature on it, probably written with some stupid ass feather pen or with ink that cost more than his rent.  
Joey turned his head towards the cat, resting his arm on his leg and putting his chin in his hand. “What do you think, Queenie?” The cat didn’t respond, just rolling over on her side and staring up at the duelist. Joey huffed a bit. “Yeah, it couldn’t definitely be a trap.” He closed his eyes, letting out a soft hum. “He wasn’t one to trap us in a terrible fate, though. He was never a villain, just a jackass.”  
He thought quietly for a moment, before opening his eyes - jumping a bit as he saw his cat sitting up and staring straight at him. “What!?”  
He was greeted with a soft _“Mrrp”_ , causing him to glare. “Don’t back sass me, young lady.” Queenie simply tilted her head, causing Joey to stick his tongue out at her.

“Ugh.” Joey placed both feet flat on the ground, begrudgingly standing up like a child being forced to clean his room. “Fine!” He snatched up the invitation, glaring at it as if it somehow caused all his current issues. Which wasn’t entirely inaccurate.  
He frowned, expression softening a bit. He turned his head back to look at Queenie, who had flopped over again. “Maybe I should save this in case we get married one day.” He snorted, setting it back down on the table as he walked away.

“Oh, how did you meet?” He spoke mockingly as he walked, going into his bedroom to get the suit buried in his closet. “Ah well, he tried to kill my best friend’s grandpa with a card game and that best friend destroyed part of his soul so he would be slightly less of a jackass.” He picked up a few ties, mostly cheesy designs that wouldn’t fly in a fancy event. He let out a mocking chuckle, dropping his voice a bit. “Oh, I met the wife the same way. Story as old as time, really.” He flicked his wrist out, popping his hip and raising his voice an octave. “It wasn’t your grandpa, silly, it was your uncle.”  
He flattened out the black suit onto his bed, comparing ties to the fabric. “Oh, that’s right! Silly me.” He clicked his tongue, tilting his head and throwing two of the ties back in the closet. “Yeah, we met back up when I was so desperate for friendship that I used half my life savings to buy him custom cufflinks. From there it just tumbled down into mutual depression and eventually, we said ‘fuck it’ and decided to get married.”  
He paused as he put the tie around his neck, glancing over his shoulder as if looking back towards the words he just said. “...that might have been too real.”

Joey was quick to change, only having a simple black two-piece suit. He didn’t even see the point in wearing an undershirt, predicting he would only be there long enough to make sure Kaiba knew he went and then leaving. Maybe steal enough hor d’oeuvres to count as a full dinner, and enough champagne to need to call a taxi. Maybe.  
The tie he picked out was dark in color, the design of a certain black dragon with red eyes crawling up the middle and spitting fire towards his neck. Definitely not something you wear to a fancy party, but close enough. It was also unfortunate that the only dress shirts he owned were black. He thought it looked like he was trying to subtly tell everyone he was a vampire, but he kept that thought deep, deep down inside.

“...this is fine.” He grabbed his wallet, keys, and cellphone, slipping on a pair of loafers that probably hadn't been shined in… well, ever. He took in a deep breath, slowly letting it out as he walked towards his front door.  
With a bit of a shaky touch, he opened the door, stepping outside into the setting sun.  
“...I’ll be fine.”


End file.
